“We laughed about that ... we got good, broad educations that prepared us for adventures that would come,” Inman chuckled. “But you don't normally expect a history major to end up running high-technology enterprises and you wouldn't expect a journalism major to end up running special forces.”

A San Antonio native, McRaven emerged this week as a central figure in the raid on bin Laden's compound just outside Islamabad, Pakistan.

Described by an old friend as a “true-blue American” who wrote his own book on raids like the one that struck bin Laden, McRaven, head of the Joint Special Operations Command, likes to lead by example, even in middle age.

“He wouldn't ask anybody to do anything that he wouldn't do or that he hasn't already done,” said retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Michael Longoria, who has known McRaven about 20 years. “It's a great leadership model.”

Inman and Longoria said McRaven likely was involved in the planning and execution of the bin Laden raid.

Months earlier, McRaven was at what appeared to be the end of a long career. He has overseen some special operations forces, elite troops whose identities and missions are highly classified, from his Fort Bragg, N.C., headquarters, since 2008.

As they dined at a hotel last fall, Inman said, McRaven thought he would not run the Special Operations Command. The command at McDill AFB, Fla., supervises the nation's 61,000 special operations troops.

“We were talking about, in both of our cases, the unlikelihood that you would ever get flag rank. ... There's just not very many opportunities either for intelligence specialists or for SEALs,” explained Inman, a retired admiral.

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“The only real potential for any higher job would have been to run the special operations command, but since Adm. Olson was there, the likelihood of two Navy (officers) in a row he thought was remote, and he talked about retiring and where he would go,” Inman added.

Special operations had been on McRaven's mind since college. Retired Marine Corps gunship pilot Curtis Raetz, 57, of McKinney, said McRaven talked about it while in their college ROTC battalion, years before leading SEALs.

“He was well-rounded. When he decided he wanted to go into special ops, he was very focused on it and part of that was very intense physical training to prepare,” recalled Raetz, a retired colonel. “He was just very, very focused on that. By the same token, he was a nice guy to be around and he didn't have any problems enjoying a good joke.”

Like others in his profession, McRaven was a low-key guy in an often-secretive community. But even in a world where troops call themselves “quiet professionals” he had earned a name.

McRaven's book, “Special Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations,” looked at eight commando attacks from World War II to 1976, according to Amazon.com.

The book was “a good read, very thorough and kind of proved the point that yes, he's a very smart guy,” Longoria said.

“I found him a fascinating guy, very, very bright. He was in good physical condition,” Inman said. “He was still going on missions with the people who worked for him.”